A Piratical End to the Summer of Plunder

By Glenn Van Meter

Photo above: French forces are ambushed by North American Braves. Photo courtesy of Adam Johnston.

Thursday September 10th marked the final day of the campaigning season for the 2021 Summer of Plunder Worldwide Campaign. Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron players submitted reports of games they had fought during the campaign.

Each report included their name, photographs and the faction they played. The reports were then compiled by faction. The faction with the highest number of reports established dominance of the high seas and won the campaign. After tallying the results from over 250 entries submitted by players all over the world, the winning faction is…

The Brethren of the Coast!

*Pirates engage the Spanish Treasure Fleet. Photo courtesy of Colleen Swader.*

A contentious last week of the campaign saw the Dutch and the Brethren in the lead, neck and neck for victory. On the final day a few submissions for the Brethren sealed the deal. A series of entries for the French in the 11th hour (only minutes before the deadline) allowed them to overtake the Dutch for runner-up.

*French Infanterie defend their supplies. Photo courtesy of David Boeren.*

As promised, a fully-painted and rigged sloop by Guy Rheuark went to a randomly determined player from the winning faction. That winner is Liam Smith! Additionally, three other players won store credit prizes from Firelock Games, and five more won Oak & Iron Core Box sets. A further number of individuals from the winning side will also get smaller prizes, to be drawn at random.

*Liam Smith’s prize sloop. Photo (and ship) courtesy of Guy Rheuark.*

Beyond the campaign prizes, many more individuals have also gotten rewards for completing faction goals. Prizes were also awarded for secret missions that were not announced by the governors leading each faction. Some of the more interesting challenges such as a Swedish force playing with ice on the table.

For another challenge a Scottish force had to submit a picture of a commander on a hill. A Brethren Challenge wanted to see a force suffering from the Drunk special rule defeating an opposing force (which I fell victim).

*Natives defend a section of palisade wall. Photo courtesy of Joseph Forster.*

As the Dutch Governor, I had a standing challenge to all Dutch players to capture, sink or burn an enemy ship, or raze an enemy building. After being defeated by the Brethren I doubled the reward for completing the challenge against a Brethren player. In the end, more than half a dozen players around the world won prizes on that challenge.

*Henry Morgan and a lady oversee the Brethren attack on a town. Photo courtesy of Shaun Service.*

I enjoyed this campaign. It was a good excuse for my local friends and I to set up a smaller campaign. We played games every week or two to report them to the worldwide event. By having the campaign within a campaign, each of our battles added so much more story for each of us than some random pick up games that we played. We got to know the commanders we were playing and the commanders that our friends were playing.

*Laurens De Graaf leads his men against a Spanish ship. Photo courtesy of Josh Levalley.*

A great example is the character of Jack Blackheart, who my friend Ben created as his commander/avatar for the campaign. He had a moderately successful career during our campaign, even managing to capture my character at one point (though I paid off a guard and escaped!) As our campaign continued, Ben wrote up battle reports and submitted them to the worldwide campaign email, detailing the wins and losses of Jack and his crew.

Dan Carlson, the Brethren commander, loved the story and pushed a few of Ben’s pieces into the campaign newsletters. Unfortunately for Ben and Jack (and Dan), Jack’s escapades came to an end when he was finally captured. He was unable to escape and was shipped back to Holland for trial, so I’m sure we’ll never hear of him again…

*Small Dutch and French fleets clash for supremacy. Photo courtesy of Derek Taylor.*

We plan to continue the story of Jack Blackheart when Firelock’s announced RPG system Under the Black Flag comes out. We will see whether this actually is the last the Caribbean has heard of him. If he escapes he may be able to find a new crew for the next worldwide Blood & Plunder campaign. Will he lead the Brethren to victory again? Or will a commander from another nation step in to lead their faction to victory?